Russian National Orchestra

Nagano, Kent

Kent Nagano

Sergei Markov

Classical

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1

Prologue

1:31

Kent Nagano Featured Artist

2

Introduction

1:39

Kent Nagano Featured Artist

SERGEI PROKOFIEV

3

Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67

23:29

Kent Nagano Featured Artist

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4

Intermezzo

1:13

Sergei Markov Featured Artist

JEAN PASCAL BEINTUS

5

Wolf Tracks

18:58

Kent Nagano Featured Artist

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6

Epilogue

0:58

Kent Nagano Featured Artist

Nagano, Kent

This is a unique collaborative project that demonstrates the power of music to bring people together. It is a model of cooperation also relevant to wildlife preservation, a complex issue that transcends national boundaries.
The pairing of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with a new composition, Wolf Tracks, by Jean-Pascal Beintus - in performance and on a surround sound recording - is the result of the commitment of artists, technical experts, world leaders and arts patrons from many countries. The project was conceived by the Russian National Orchestra and further developed by PentaTone under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano.
Wolf Tracks is a tale that converts the image of the wolf from a fearsome creature to one that represents the imperative to cherish and protect natural resources. This is a contemporary perspective that encompasses the importance of recognizing the point of view of others, a value that lies at the core of understanding different people and cultures.
With support from the Russian Arts Foundation, the RNO commissioned French composer Beintus to write the score of the new piece and selected award winning broadcast writer Walt Kraemer to create the accompanying text. Contributors include Linda Whitaker, Martha Bredon and Hélène Grimaud, co-founder of the Wolf Conservation Center. Nagano led the RNO in the world premiere of Wolf Tracks in August 2002 at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival.
From the outset, the objective was not only a superb artistic product, but also a project that would raise money for charity. The non-commercial approach, along with the themes of tolerance and understanding embodied in Wolf Tracks, attracted a stellar lineup for the venture’s next phase - a surround sound recording on the PentaTone Classics label.
Narrators Sophia Loren (Peter and the Wolf), Bill Clinton (Wolf Tracks) and Mikhail Gorbachev (introduction and epilogue) contributed their time for recording sessions in Geneva and Moscow. Each has designated a charity to receive their royalties: Loren to the Magic of Music, the RNO’s innovative arts therapy program for youth; Clinton to the International AIDS Trust, whose advisory committee he co-chairs with Nelson Mandela; and Gorbachev to Green Cross International, an environmental charity which he founded in 1993. Proceeds from the sale of the CD will also be shared with the Wolf Conservation Center and other wildlife organizations.
The art on the CD’s cover and booklet is the work of some very special children who live in Moscow orphanages and facilities for the disabled. The drawings were selected from the hundreds shown at the 2002 "How I See Music" Exhibition, an annual event sponsored by the RNO at the Moscow Conservatory. These young artists live under difficult, challenging circumstances and their art, like music, is testament to the magic of creative self-expression.

Winner of a 2004 GRAMMY Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

“Sophia Loren’s charming narration of Peter and the Wolf has a universal appeal. Children will surely love its friendly simplicity and innocence, and adults will appreciate the way this fine actress, without being in the least self-conscious, identifies totally with the story. She is helped by Kent Nagano’s alert yet relaxed pacing, and some superb individual characterizations by the orchestral soloists, especially the cat - so feline and slinky on the clarinet... Grandfather, too, is pert and dapper, yet persuasive in his authority on the bassoon, and the oboe’s melancholy is very winning at the close, when Loren’s last words are so gentle and touching. She makes one realize that the situation of the duck alive inside the wolf brings a dilemma virtually impossible to resolve, a perception which children readily share."

Gramophone Magazine

"...a sonically impressive new SACD version of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf [and] Wolf Tracks ... The message of global harmony is clear, [the] score is forest-fresh, it’s all in aid of charity and only a real Scrooge could complain."

BBC Music Magazine

"Kent Nagano has come up with another coup in this remarkable for-charity super-audio CD. [Wolf Tracks] is pleasant and tuneful and delightfully crafted... The Russian National Orchestra plays with great distinction, in a typically Nagano-style, fastidiously balanced recording."

Manchester Music

"Peter and the Wolf was conceived as an educational tool to teach children about the orchestra, and this new disc carries on the aim of exciting and informing young minds. In addition to Prokofiev and Loren’s thoughtful, sweet voice, listeners will find a new work, Wolf Tracks,...that [embodies] ideals of cooperation, understanding, conservation, and the immense power of art to inspire."

The Sun Newspaper

"A fundraiser for charity, it is also a technically sophisticated production that can be played on a surround-sound channel if you have one... Bill Clinton is a charming narrator, [and] the booklet is beautifully decked out with paintings by children from Moscow orphanages and a home for the disabled."

The Sunday Times

"Sophia Loren’s reading of the Prokofiev is delightful... Pentatone’s multi-channel recording is outstanding in its clarity and impact... It’s an attractive, unusual CD, for a good cause."

Classical CD Review

"The 42nd US President joins a long line of greats to appear on a recording of ’Peter and the Wolf’... you will not be disappointed."

The Independent

" ...a terrific narration job that should appeal to all ages... The 5.0 channel orchestral surround on both works is realistic and involving."

Audiophile Audition - November 2003

"I would recommend this Peter and the Wolf as one of the better ones in the catalogue and surely the best recorded... Sophia Loren proves to be a splendid narrator, imbuing her reading with charm and an innate sense of drama. The orchestra’s soloists play splendidly."

Soundstage - November 2003

" Here’s a recording that should get plenty of attention... Kent Nagano leads the Russian National Orchestra with a light hand, and his wind soloists are especially excellent. Sophia Loren is [an] expressive narrator... Former President Clinton renders Kraemer’s words with the same sort of down-home feeling and intelligence that made him such an effective politician... Beintus’s music [is] solidly crafted... The orchestra has been richly and closely recorded... It’s hard to object to the motivations behind this project. Unless you’re against World Peace, or wolves."

Fanfare - November 2003

" Kent Nagano has come up with another coup in this remarkable for-charity super-audio CD. [Wolf Tracks] is pleasant and tuneful and delightfully crafted... The Russian National Orchestra plays with great distinction, in a typically Nagano-style, fastidiously balanced recording."

Manchester Music - October 2003

" The Russian National Orchestra never lets us forget that Peter and the Wolf is a Russian work. Everything is lavishly colorful and fast-paced... The cat’s clarinet squeals raucously, the bird’s flute sings rapturously, the hunters’ drums pound lustily, and the trombones snarl in the wolf-capture scene as only Russian brass dare. Nonetheless, Kent Nagano elicits subtle touches: Peter’s theme is lithe and elegant [and] the horns play with surprising subtlety and roundness. The recording is warm and vivid, with deep bass, excellent balance and convincing stereo separation... this is a first-class Peter in a crowded field."

American Record Guide - November 2003

" Watch out, Richard Baker, Angela Rippon and other narrators of Prokofiev, Walton and such musical yarn-spinners. Here comes the dream team, with a top-notch orchestra under Kent Nagano... Clinton offers an amiable ramble through [Wolf Tracks]. La Loren has only to say ‘Are you sitting comfortably?’ for this reviewer’s ears to prick up, proving as charming a guide as any through [Peter and the Wolf’s] zany animal world."

The Observer - October 2003

" The surprise performance comes from Clinton. His famously pock-marked voice is strangely alluring. He sounds sincere and avuncular, and acts with a fair amount of ease. This is something more complex than a statesmanlike reading of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. Hidden talents? No. After all, it was Ronald Reagan who said during his presidency that there had been times when he ’wondered how you could do the job if you hadn’t been an actor.’
" It’s no surprise that the music helped make the story more real for Clinton. ... the music can be quite moving. [The] best of Beintus’ music sounds ultra-French: Debussy-like harp passages, a Jean Francaix lightness... [It’s] music that immediately places the listener in the story, evoking cold breezes, a frightening chase, the sad eyes of a captured wolf. What better traits for music to accompany a children’s story? Wolf Tracks should become a popular piece with any orchestra that wants to bring children a contemporary message...
Sophia Loren can do no wrong in her take on the Prokofiev. With this release, she joins... a long line of celebrities taking their turn at narrating the beloved children’s tale. And yet Loren is like none of her predecessors. She is delicately sexy in the part. She doesn’t so much read the text as purr it."

Philadelphia Inquirer - October 2003

" A fundraiser for charity, it is also a technically sophisticated production that can be played on a surround-sound channel if you have one... Bill Clinton is a charming narrator, [and] the booklet is beautifully decked out with paintings by children from Moscow orphanages and a home for the disabled."

Sunday Times - September 2003

" The 42nd US President joins a long line of greats to appear on a recording of ’Peter and the Wolf’... you will not be disappointed."

The Independent - September 2003

" ... Over now to three more virtuoso artistes: Bill Clinton, Sophia Loren, and Mikhail Gorbachev. On Pentatone Classics PT 6011 their instrument is their own voices. Loren reads Peter and the Wolf with an old pro’s skill, never pressing too hard. Clinton, less at home, wraps his Arkansas vowels around Jean-Pascal Beintus’s Wolf Tracks, a new composition in praise of a wolf, a boy and the harmony of humans and nature. Gorbachev, translator at hand, acts as master of ceremonies. Wolf Tracks glides by pleasantly; the Russian National Orchestra and Kent Nagano play like angels; for those with SACD players there is surround sound, and royalties go to worthy causes. I came to poke fun, but really, it’s a sweet disc."

Geoff Brown - The Times - September 2003

" Bill Clinton is a born communicator. He brings this exciting new piece of music to life."